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All Wheeldon

"All Wheeldon"
"Carousel (A Dance)", "After the Rain Pas de deux", "Polyphonia", and "Variations Serieuses"
Pacific Northwest Ballet
McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington
24 September 2011 (matinee and evening)

By Helene Kaplan
Copyright ©2011 by Helene Kaplan

On the morning before Pacific Northwest Ballet's second program of the season, "Love Stories", which features company premieres of Balanchine's "Divertimento from 'La Baiser de la fee'" and Robbins' "Afternoon of a Faun" in addition to "After Petipa" classic pas de deux, the memory of the "All Wheeldon" program from September still lingers.  Often mixed programs featuring one choreographer show that choreographer's limitations, and Wheeldon has received criticism for the inconsistency of his output -- I've seen some outside PNB that warrants it -- as well as for not being the next Balanchine.  PNB's "All Wheeldon" program, comprised of the four ballets by Christopher Wheeldon in the Company's rep, showed the choreographer's richness of invention and belied easy categorization of these works, and, as a result, each work made an even stronger impression.  Whatever the logic and intention behind granting permission to and acquiring these specific works for the Company, it worked like a charm. 

Tradition

"After Petipa"
Doug Fullington
with Christina Siemens (piano) and Batkhurel Bold, Karel Cruz, Kyle Davis, Rachel Foster, Carrie Imler, Kylee Kitchens, Carla Körbes, William Lin-Yee, Kaori Nakamura, Sarah Ricard Orza, Jonathan Porretta, Lucien Postlewaite, Lesley Raush, Brittany Reid, and Jerome Tisserand of Pacific Northwest Ballet
Phelps Center
Seattle, Washington
20 October 2011

by Helene Kaplan
Copyright © 2011 by Helene Kaplan

Last night in the stage-sized Pacific Northwest Ballet Studio C, Doug Fullington presented "After Petipa", the latest in a series of presentations that feature reconstructions from Stepanov notation of excepts of Petipa's works and compare 19th and early 20th century versions of the classics to current versions and the works of his choreographic descendants. "After Petipa" focused on three pas de deux from "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty", and while the program was more narrowly focused than previous programs, it was no less illuminating and revelatory. The comparisons illustrated several underlying themes: the simplicity of the reconstructed versions to faster tempos, the remarkably similar floor patterns in many old and new versions, changes and re-arrangements of the music between the premieres and the Petipa revivals, the incorporation of drama into the dance movements to replace original mime in pas d'action, and the distinct transition from the Cecchetti-influenced petite allegro with many connecting steps to grande allegro. 

Celebrating Balanchine

"La Valse", "Monumentum pro Gesualdo",
"Movements for Orchestra", "Theme and Variations"
Ballet Arizona
Symphony Hall
Phoenix, Arizona
Sunday, 5 June 2011

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2011 by Helene Kaplan

The season closing all-Balanchine program at Ballet Arizona is an opportunity to compare revivals to past performance, new additions to revivals, and stylistic differences and similarities among the ballets.  This year's program shows the company at its strongest, taking on the technical challenges with ease and authority, but, more importantly, presenting each ballet on its own terms, from the dynamism of "La Valse" to the gentle neoclassicism of "Monumentum pro Gesualdo", the quirkiness and wit of "Movements for Orchestra", and the majesty of "Theme and Variations" by often overlapping casts.

A Contemporary Feast

“Contemporary 4”
“Pacific”, “Place a Chill”, “The Piano Dance”, “Concerto DSCH”
Pacific Northwest Ballet
McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington
18 March 2011
19 March 2011, matinee and evening

Helene Kaplan
copyright 2011 by Helene Kaplan

When Peter Boal was asked how he chose the works for the “Contemporary 4” program, he replied that he wanted to present Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH” as soon as New York City Ballet’s exclusivity rights expired, and the rest he picked up from the cutting room floor, refusing to postpone them any longer.  It turned out to be serendipity, a feast for the eyes and ears, and with two ballets that could take pride of place in any classical company’s repertoire.

Tharp Returns to PNB

 

 "All Tharp":  "Opus 111," "Afternoon Ball", and "Waterbaby Bagatelles"
Pacific Northwest Ballet
McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington
5 November 2010, dedicated to the memory of Katherine E. Zappone
6 November 2010 matinee and evening

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2010 by Helene Kaplan

"Twyla loves her men," PNB Principal Dancer Jonathan Porretta said at a post-performance Q&A following PNB's opening night performance of its "All Tharp" program.  In the lilting, lyrical sections of "Opus 111",  the character-driven protagonists of "Afternoon Ball", and the virtuosic, if plain, choreography for the lead and the beautifully integrated and varied solos for the corps men in "Waterbaby Bagatelles", the men of PNB look a wide range of great.  In "Opus 111", the opening work set to a string quintet by Brahms, the women look cut off at the knees, with their flat feet -- it's performed in ballet slippers -- and bent knees with not enough plie in the choreography to give them juice.  The truism about ballet dancers dancing modern and looking earthbound instead of in the floor mainly held here for the women. The choppy phrasing of much of the choreography as one idea supplants another stunts a lot of the momentum, and the transitions out of the many and difficult mid-body lifts, which on ice would be terrific because the women could glide rather than stumble out of them, are, to quote the United Airlines safety video, "heavy and awkward".  It's as if the men are performing in "Dances at a Gathering", and the women are in another dance, with the women getting the short end of the stick.

PNB's Season Finale

"Season Encore Performance"
Pacific Northwest Ballet
McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington
13 June 2010

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2010 by Helene Kaplan

In October Pacific Northwest Ballet's Music Director Stewart Kershaw, who had just celebrated his silver anniversary with the Company, resigned unexpectedly after conducting a string of brilliant performances for "Romeo et Juliette".  Kershaw said, "In planning my departure from the ballet world I wanted to make my own personal farewell on a high note with music that has always been so very dear to my heart - what better then than Prokoviev's Romeo & Juliet as my swan song?” Peter Boal was not going to let Kershaw slip away, and Kershaw returned to the podium for the "Season Encore Performance" which honored him. 

PNB's "Coppelia"

"Coppelia"
Pacific Northwest Ballet
McCaw Hall
Seattle, Washington
5 June 2010 (matinee and evening), 11 June 2010, 13 June 2010 (matinee, Act III)

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2010 by Helene Kaplan

The big news in PNB's new co-production of "Coppelia" with San Francisco Ballet is the re-design, one of the rare design exceptions made by The George Balanchine Trust. Roberta Guidi di Bagno's sets for the village in Acts I and III were fresh and airy and for Dr. Coppelius' workshop in Act II were full of detail, strangeness, and wonder. Act I sets showed Swanhilda's house as a stylized teapot and Dr. Coppelius' as a tall coffee pot, yet neither looked like cartoons. Dr. Coppelius' workshop/study was full of mannequins hanging from the rafters and a large chair made of books. The Act III village square was draped in wisteria and the town bells, the two downstage with the initials "GB" and "LD" for the choreographer and composer, and four bells in the background with the initials of major production donors or, in one case, the late husband of a donor. Alexandra Danilova, with Balanchine, reconstructed the first two acts and was a famous Swanhilda in her own right, and Peter Boal would not let her go unrecognized:  the mirror in which Swanhilda, disguised as the doll Coppelia, first gazes at her "human" self, has the initials "AD" on the back.

Ballet Arizona's Balanchine Evening

"Divertimento No. 15", "Prodigal Son", "The Four Temperaments"
Ballet Arizona
Symphony Hall
Phoenix, Arizona
12 June 2010 (matinee and evening)

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2010 by Helene Kaplan

To see a program with the range and depth of "Divertimento No. 15", "Prodigal Son", and "Four Temperaments" in a single evening is a rarity; to see each piece performed in a way that emphasized its originality, yet was clearly part of a whole, is a rare privilege, and that is what was on view in Phoenix last weekend.

Balanchine in Phoenix

Ballet Arizona
(with the Phoenix Symphony)
Symphony Hall
Phoenix, Arizona
June 5, 6, 2008 (matinee and evening)

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2008 by Helene Kaplan

The last program in Ballet Arizona's 2007-8 season was an all Balanchine evening -- rare these days, even in New York -- "Rubies," "La Sonnambula," and "The Four Temperaments."  The company has performed "Rubies" before -- several times in the more intimate Orpheum Theatre -- and "La Sonnambula" as well.  "The Four Temperaments", staged by Sandra Jennings, was a company premiere.  "Rubies" and "Four Temperaments" alternated casts in the matinée and evening performances, while the "La Sonnambula" cast remained constant through the run.

A Fine "Don Quixote" in Phoenix

"Don Quixote"
Ballet Arizona
Symphony Hall
Phoenix, Arizona
February 16, 2008

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2008 by Helene Kaplan

With its familiar comic plot and passages of technical virtuosity, it's easy to forget that at the center of "Don Quixote" are relationships and transformations. Ballet Arizona's new production of the old ballet (by Olga Evreinoff), featured three Kitris and two Basilios. Paola Hartley and Astrit Zejnati danced the leading roles in the performance I saw, and showed that the sum can be greater than the parts, brilliant as those parts are.